Liquid Cool: The Cyberpunk Detective Series (29 page)

"Box, did anyone ever tell you that you're a scumbag detective?"

"All the time, but I can pay my bills every month."

"Where is he?"

"Where most of the Animal Farm crime syndicate is. You can find him in Mad Heights."

Chapter 43: Run-Time

This was my third pass around the streets surrounding Alien Alley. But I had walked it only once. Back in the day when I was a new hover-car racer, I had got into the junk I was driving and I felt something was off. It kept bothering me and eventually I pulled myself out of the race and gave the hover-car a complete inspection. It had a major separation in one of the feeder junctions to the engine. It could have shorted and crashed to the ground from twenty stories up; and there would be no Cruz or Liquid Cool Detective Agency. I listened to my instincts, even if they were wrong. This Alien Alley was off, but I didn't know why. It was in Woodstock Falls, so it wasn't a bad part of the city. However, I took the one walk through and I was done. I was only going to survey it from the safety of my Pony.

This was the scene of the crime. The kidnapping of a little girl as her mother walked her to school. It was the other anomaly the human computer known as Compstat Connie mentioned to me and I agreed. The crime took place at or before the shoot-out on Sweet Street that ended with the death of one Easy Chair Charlie. To a normal person, both events would be unconnected; the fact that they occurred on the same night would not mean anything. But now that I was here and walked the alley, I felt otherwise. The end of the alley that the daughter and mother would have emerged from had a view. It was a view that was not obstructed by monolith towers as one would expect, based on a quick glance of a street map on one's mobile. Woodstock Falls was a neighborhood of hills and the neighboring Old Harlem was not. From Alien Alley in Woodstock Falls was a clear view, across the way, of Joe Blows Smoking Emporium with all its flashing neon lights on Sweet Street.

Was the little girl just kidnapped at random? Or was it because she saw something or someone she wasn't supposed to see? And now that I confirmed from Box that the someone was a cyborg psycho named Red Rabbit. The connections were coming together. The events not only happened in close proximity, they happened on top of each other. I cared about my Easy Chair Charlie Case, but it coincided with the Lutty Girl Kidnapping Case. I had no proof at all, but they were connected.

Those were the "whats" of the cases. It was the "how" and "why" of my Easy Chair Charlie Case. I kept babbling to myself. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it, I said to myself.

Mad Heights.

I was stalling for time and I knew it. For damn good reason.

When I came through my office door, PJ was fiddling with a new purple mobile computer on her desk.

"Look what I got," she said to me.

"What happened to the old one?"

"Oh I burned the keys out on that one."

"Just replace the keyboard."

"It costs the same to replace the keyboard as it does to get a whole new mobile computer. So I got a new one."

"You should get one of those auxiliary keyboards so all you have to do is replace those."

She smiled. "You do come up with good ideas every so often."

"That's what I've been told. Visitors?"

"None."

"Calls?"

"A ton. All on your desk."

"What about the window? I don't why it took so long to fix. How can it take three weeks to fix a window? Don't throw any more people out my window."

"I didn't throw anyone out. You shot him out the window."

"What about the window then?"

"Fixed and as good as new, but we can't keep shooting it out. Do you have any new clients? The paying kind?"

I walked away into my personal office.

The fact is that we all needed to get paid. I was burning through money like a billion-sheet roll of toilet paper in the center of the sun. I could see the words flash in my brain: "most businesses fail because of lack of adequate start-up capital."

"You Cruz?" the man on my video-phone asked.

"I, Cruz."

"You detective?"

"I detective."

"Good, I need you to shoot someone."

"Shoot wounded or shoot dead?"

"Shoot dead."

"My firm doesn't offer that as a service yet, but I'll refer you."

"Oh, good."

"Do you have something to write on?"

"Yes, hold on...I got it."

"Do you have something to write with?"

"Hold on...Got it."

"Nine."

"Nine."

"One."

"One."

"One."

"One."

"That's two ones after the nine. Call that express line and ask for the same thing and they'll help you."

"Oh, good."

"It has to be a detective?"

"Oh yes. You can cover up your tracks so the cops don't catch you."

"You're a real life genius."

"Oh, I not all that, but I is smart."

"Hiring a detective to kill someone. That's like hiring a fireman to do an arson job for you. You smart."

"Oh yes. I try."

"Call that number and hire your guy. But don't mention my name or they'll jack up the price on you."

"Okay. Thanks detective."

"Happy to help."

I disconnected my video-phone. "PJ!" I yelled.

The call came in when I was hunched over my desk re-prioritizing my messages. I had the "hot" pile, the "hold" pile, the "hell no" pile, and a few other miscellaneous ones.

"Line one." PJ's voice came through my video-phone intercom.

I thought it funny to hear PJ say "line one" when all I had was one line.

Run-Time appeared on the video phone with his trademark Kangol.

"How are you, sir?" I said.

"I'm blessed and I hear you've been too."

"I wouldn't go that far, but I've had a good start, aside from a few unpleasantries."

"Unpleasantries are a fact of life. Are you officially back from your vacation? The Box is what I was told you call it."

"I'm back with a new hat, new coat, and new attitude to make things happen. I'm back."

"Good. I have another client for you."

"What's her name?"

"Carol Num..."

"The mother of the kidnapped girl."

Run-Time stopped a beat. "You know her?"

"I heard about it when I was poking around for Fat Nat."

"She's in a bad way and Flash asked me to intervene."

"Flash is always the knight in shining armor to the rescue."

"I'm going to see her tomorrow and I'd like to also have a solution for her. Maybe, if I could say a detective friend would take a look."

"I'll take it. The case."

"Just like that?"

"Sure. I told you, I'm back."

"She's very fragile and my police friends say there's nothing happening with the case."

"When do you want come by to meet her?"

"Tomorrow."

"I'll clear my schedule."

Chapter 44: Carol Num

I made good time to Let It Ride Enterprises headquarters in Peacock Hills. However, all the extra time I thought I had was eaten up by the awful Electric Blvd. hover-traffic. Valet took my Pony--I never allowed valet to touch my vehicle anywhere else, but I knew all of Run-Time's people so it was okay--and I got in the elevator capsule.

"Mr. Cruz." His Lebanese VP was waiting for me and after I replied with a greeting back she led me up to Run-Time's executive office.

"Cruz." Run-Time's smile was always infectious to me. We greeted each other and he gestured me to an empty seat in his inner sitting area.

There she was--Carol Num, a Caucasian female with dark hair, still wearing her gray slicker inside with a mini-umbrella clipped to the waist. I shook her hand and she eagerly returned the gesture. I sat across from her. Run-Time and his VP sat in their facing chairs. We were all sitting on one side of a cube design. I could see in her eyes that this was no ordinary meeting with a client. In her eyes, I was her last hope. I had to be very careful what I said. She was on the edge of sanity. The police had done nothing so far, in her mind, and no one else had either. I had to chose my words carefully and I leaned forward to speak.

"Should I call you, Mrs. Num?"

"No. Please call me Carol."

"Carol, I'm going to apologize right at the start..."

"For what?" I could see the hope in her eyes preparing itself to die.

"Because I'm about to speak to you in a somewhat unfriendly, accusatory way that victims in your situation do not deserve."

"I don't understand."

"I need you to tell me the truth, not the story you've been telling the police or my friend here."

Carol's head jerked back in total shock. "I don't know what you mean. I have only told the truth. My daughter was taken from me."

"That's probably the only true part of the story, but I want to know the part before and the part after, but only the truth."

"I did say the truth!" Carol jumped up from her seat, her eyes starting to tear up.

The VP stood up quickly and took her hand and, though I didn't look at him, Run-Time was giving me a look I had never seen from him in all the years we've known each--anger.

I stood slowly from my chair. "Carol, I'm sorry, but I won't be able to help you. If you can't give me the whole truth, then how am I supposed to go after the kidnapper? I'm sorry."

I stepped away from my chair and started to walk to the office door...very slowly. Carol, VP, and, even Run-Time stood there with their mouths hanging open.

"Wait!" Carol yelled.

I stopped and looked back at her.

"How did you know I wasn't telling the truth?" she asked.

The look on both the VPs' and Run-Time's faces was priceless. They did a double-take and stared at her.

"Well, for one, I looked into your background and found that you owned a plasma gun. That is a serious gun and you got it four years ago, so it was just before you start
ed walking her to school. To me that meant you carried it whenever you walked her to school for protection, that night too. You were armed that night and there's no way you would let some guy in a rabbit mask get your daughter without a shot.

"Then I heard you were wandering the streets and happened to come across some low-level street punk corner king. Everyone said it was random. Bull. Among other things, he's a weapons dealer on the street. This kidnapper supposedly has a very unique kind of gun. You were going to the only person you knew who would know that. Meaning, you must have bought at least one illegal gun from the guy. Meaning, you must have also seen his gun that night when he kidnapped your daughter. Mrs. Num, I don't have time for games. This kidnapper is a gang member called Red Rabbit, but there isn't anything funny about him. How am I going to find his Animal Farm crime syndicate that he's a part of, find their hide-out, rescue your daughter...how can I do all that successfully without the whole truth and nothing but? Your daughter could be getting killed right now while we're playing games."

That did it. Carol broke down into a sobbing mess.

"She ran ahead of me. We were both running down the alley, but you know kids, and I'm no spring chicken anymore. She sprinted way past me. When she got to other end of the alley, she stopped and went around the corner and I couldn't see her. I ran as fast as I could."

We were all back in our chairs in Run-Time's sitting area as Carol recounted the real story.

"When I got around the corner, there was this man wearing a rabbit mask on his head and his arms were metallic and he was trying to grab my Lutty. He was holding some kind of machine gadget in his other hand. That's the only way my Lutty was able to fight him off. I heard all kinds of gunfire in the distance. I jumped on him and starting punching his head but it was solid...like padded metal. He threw me off and grabbed my Lutty by the collar and ran off with her!"

The VP had to calm her down.

Her face turned mean. "Before he grabbed her though, I pulled out my gun and shot him, over and over, but nothing happened. He laughed and told me that if he had a third arm, he'd show what a real scary gun looked like. That he'd vaporize me and I'd find out why he was called Red." She got quiet as she lowered her head. "Then he ran off with her."

My mannerism was to lean forward when I wanted to have a pointed conversation. With Run-Time, it was the opposite. He leaned all the way back in his chair and he looked at Carol angrily.